PM offers Greer advice on coming home

Among the bouquets accorded to famous Australians yesterday, Prime Minister John Howard had a clear message for one well-known expatriate, Germaine Greer: don't come back.

He said last night during an interview on A Current Affair that he had read Dr Greer's latest thoughts on Australia, in which she described her former homeland as "too relaxed to give a damn".

"I thought it was hopelessly out of touch - I mean what she basically says was that the average Australian is too stupid to think about anything that is the least bit philosophically important," Mr Howard said. "I thought that was just so condescending . . . and if she wants to stay in another country, good luck to her."

Dr Greer, who left Australia for Britain in 1964, published a column last week in which she described the Australian reality as "neither Uluru or the Sydney Opera House but endless, ever-expanding replications of Ramsay Street", except that "most Australians don't know their next-door neighbours or care what becomes of them".